That’s a Door. That’s a Wall.

Out on The Way, there comes a point where you either turn left or right. It’s a fork in the road, as They say. If you turn left, you will encounter a wide-variety of distractions and oddities. There are countless details, funny little snags and plenty to chew on; Zigs and Zags galore.

If you turn right, there is a much cleaner experience. Things are fairly straightforward. The path is well-maintained and very obvious. No frills or fanfare, just a path to follow.

This is how it is.

And it isn’t the case that you cannot switch. If you turned right and wish you hadn’t, you can struggle through the untamed brush and arrive on the other path. Likewise, if you turned left and are overwhelmed by it’s lack of clarity, you can trudge through to the other path (it’s easy to find, since it’s so predictable!).

Ultimately, both paths work. They lead to the same destination.

The funny part is, the destination is where you were before you ever came to the fork in the road. The Beginning is the End.

And yet, once you’ve set out on The Way, you have to pick a path. Turn left, or turn right. It doesn’t matter which path you take, but you will have to walk it (or bounce back and forth between them) because that’s The Way. IT. IS.

You can use the methods of thinking and analyzing to get there. You can use the methods of chaos and intuition to get there. It won’t make a difference in the end because getting there means arriving HERE.

We’re out on The Way for a reason. Most of us are living out the fable of the Musk Deer.

This poor ol’ Musk Deer roams the forest, searching for the source of the marvelous scent he has picked up on. Looking everywhere, he never seems to find it. Forever seeking, never finding, because the scent is coming from him. If he just stood still, he’d be all set.

We are very much the same. We seek peace. We seek relaxation. We seek health and wellness, among so many other things. None of them are meaningfully outside of ourselves. That isn’t the Nature of Things.

You cannot experience anything outside of yourself.

You ARE an experience.

It’s already happening.

ALL THE TIME.

The Mind and Body are doorways. TaiChi and Yoga are doorways. We are invited to walk through if we choose. Some doorways take us to the left, others to the right. All of them are useful, all of them are valid.

But you have to go through. You have to keep walking.

The need to understand the path is a wall.

Attachment to the path is a wall.

You have to keep walking.

If you just sit down and refuse to keep walking, you will only delay your arrival.

It does very little good to be mad that you are out and about. We have to get back.

So you just keep walking the path.

And when you finally realize you have re-arrived at the “destination”, you simply stay for as long as you can.

All these paths and doors will lead you to that place. But you have to do the walking.

And when you find yourself “There” (which is to say “Here”) you have to do the staying.

And inevitably, by our own design or not, you will end up lurching off the mark again and have to take another walk.

And each time this occurs, we run into the forks in the road; so we choose a path and we walk it until we get back again.